Integrated disciplines grace Walk it Out fashion show

Humber College’s Annual Walk it Out fashion show was showcased at downtown Toronto’s Palais Royale on Tuesday to much praise.

The show was part of a capstone project curated by the Fashion Arts & Business graduating class, showcasing the theme of a ‘Modern Warrior’ to reflect the theme of power, identity and freedom.

“That was really important for us to really look at what it had meant to embody a great person,” said Amber Bernard, host of the evening and professor for the Event Management postgraduate certificate program and the Fashion Arts diploma program.

“Man, woman, anything you want to be or if you don’t want to be, that’s fine, too,” she said.

The biggest surprise of the night was when Paul Mason, otherwise known as the infamous Fashion Santa, graced the runway.

James Cullin, associate dean of the Business School, shared that Modern Warrior marked his second fashion event in his role and praised the integration among the Fashion Arts, Media and Cosmetics students.

“This team has been a delight to work with, really representative of Humber’s polytechnic identity to be able to use this fashion show as a leverage for fashion students to go very in-depth in a capstone on event planning,” said Cullin.

“The cosmetic students have an opportunity for real world experience providing makeup for models which is a little different than what they would be able to do in a classroom,” he added.

The event also used the School of Media Studies’ HD TV mobile unit to live stream the event, in addition to four cameras filming.

“I want to continue the spirit of integration,” said Cullin. “If I had a hope, it would be to bring the photography students in to shoot the show.”

Sebastian Blagdon graduated from the Fashion Arts program last year and is now in the Fashion Management degree program. While the program catered to his love of fashion, he praised Humber for offering the business aspects of fashion, as it gives students real world experience.

“Humber doesn’t offer fashion design,” Blagdon said.

“The Walk it Out event is a really good opportunity for students to get used to actual productions and learn how to put a fashion show together from scratch and look at the whole other side of the fashion.”

Cullin reiterated the importance of the hands-on experience that the students are given through the experience of putting together a themed fashion show.

“It is a unique experience for students to put on a live fashion show with real Toronto based designers,” Cullin said.

“The benefit to students is that they are able to take all of the event planning skills that they developed during the fall semester and apply it in an off-campus meaningful fashion and synthesize everything together.”

While the next Walk it Out event is a year away, it is Cullin’s hope that next year’s group will follow the trend of thinking about fashion in a more sustainable manner and will seek out designers who have sustainably-based app